New York, NY The Center for Architecture will open “Design and the Just City” on Thursday, January 10 at 6 p.m. The exhibition, curated by the Just City Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and its director Toni Griffin, asks whether design can help correct urban injustice by examining five case studies in NYC.

The Just City Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Design investigates how design and planning contribute to conditions of justice and injustice in our cities. As a result, the Lab has developed a series of tools for assessing and engaging with social and spatial justice issues.

“There is growing interest among design and planning professionals and students to address issues of social and spatial injustice and disparity,” said Griffin. “Our team of student research assistants at the GSD are creating platforms for dialogue and profiles of practice that we hope prove the possibility of dismantling injustice.” 

Design and the Just City will examine how effectively design can address injustice within the context of NYC. The exhibition will use the lab’s Just City Index, which includes 50 indicators and values that contribute to realizing the Just City, to assess the five NYC case studies.

The featured case studies are:

• D15 Diversity Plan, led by WXY, a community-based effort to make schools in Brooklyn’s District 15 more diverse and integrated.

• Justice in Design, led by the Van Alen Institute, a plan to develop healthier and more rehabilitative jail infrastructure.

• Center for Living and Learning, led by Perkins Eastman, which transformed an underutilized space into a community-driven, mixed-use space.

• Under the Elevated, led by the Design Trust for Public Space, an initiative that reclaims spaces beneath infrastructure. 

• Public Life and Urban Justice in NYC Plazas; led by Gehl Studio, the J. Max Bond Center at Spitzer School of Architecture CCNY, and Transportation Alternatives; a study that evaluates effective public life and social justice in public space through a framework of metrics.

In addition, an interactive map wiill invite visitors to determine what values they most associate with their neighborhoods, allowing us to plot collective manifestos for the Just City in New York.

“Design and the Just City in NYC resonates with AIA New York’s 2019 presidential theme, BUILDING COMMUNITY, which asks members how they can contribute to communities inside and outside the profession. To this end, we are pleased to work with Professor Toni Griffin and her students from Harvard GSD, who have expanded their research to present a range of NYC projects,” said Benjamin Prosky, Assoc. AIA, Executive Director, AIA New York | Center for Architecture. “We are eager to share this work with our extended community as they continue to express interest in better understanding how design interventions can promote equity, especially at a time when cities have become places of extreme privilege and extreme poverty.”

Design and the Just City in NYC will be on view from January 10 – March 30, 2019.

RELATED PROGRAMMING
Members of the press are invited related programming. 

Opening
Thursday, January 10, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
This event will also mark the closing of Close to the Edge: The Birth of Hip Hop Architecture.

Disruption by Design: Case Studies in Designing for a Just New York
Monday, March 6:00 – 8:00 PM
?With Toni L. Griffin, UrbanAC and Harvard Graduate School of Design

Funding support comes from the Just City Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

This exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.